We were a party of 8 people, and we called ahead at 6:50pm
to find out the length of the wait. We
were told “20 minutes” and also told that if we gave our names, they would put
us down and hold the table for us, especially when we told them we would be
there in 15 minutes. We arrived as we
said we would, and then we waited…and waited…and waited, until 7:55pm; in
reality, that 20-minute wait was an hour and five minutes. Not fun at all, especially with hungry
teenagers. We told the hostess that we
could be split four and four, since the kids are teenagers, but she chose to
seat other parties that arrived after us, and held us until the only large
table was available.

I wish I could say the meal got better once we were seated;
unfortunately, that was not the case. We
started our meal with an order of onion rings and a double order of chicken
wings…the “double order” of chicken wings was an embarrassment; these were
pigmy wings, with almost no meat, fried to oblivion. It was immediately apparent to the waitress,
who must have been considering what she was going to say when she delivered
them, because when she got to the table, before we could say anything, she was
chagrined to the point of saying “I’m going to have the chef make you some
more, because there aren’t very many”. A
few minutes later, the “manager” came out with a bread plate with four more
tiny wings. He said he was bringing them out because the earlier order “was a
little chintzy”. The only expression
that popped in to my head at that time was “why bother?”

Given all your marketing, and publicity, surrounding your
steak tips, I ordered them, but ordered them plain because I did not want any
of the sweet “Café” sauce. The waitress
asked if wanted the broccoli and mashed potatoes, and I told her I would take
the broccoli, but would prefer a side of onion rings, and her only response was
“fine” (important note for later). My
wife has several food allergies (dairy, peanuts and shellfish). She identified these allergies to the
waitress, who went and got the manager.
My wife wanted to order the chicken kabab salad, but the manager told my
wife that the marinade has milk in it (ugh!), but that the chef could grill the
chicken separately, put some olive oil on it, and maybe some spices…so far, it
sounded ok to my wife.

When the food was delivered, most came out correctly, except
for mine…and my wife’s dinner was missing in action. I was shocked at skimpy size of the steak
tips. I ordered the regular full-sized
meal. Your menu describes the dish as
“our huge 10-oz size…”, but on the plate were 5 small “tips”, and they were
smothered in pink “café” sauce. In light
of the manager’s acknowledgment about the pathetic portion of wings, I suggest
that your kitchen in Marlborough does not know how to properly portion the
meals, because this dish looked like the size of a kid’s order. Of course, since they were smothered in sweet
pink sauce, I sent them back. At this
point, my wife’s meal still had not arrived.

After my dish is taken away, the manager arrived with my
wife’s salad. The minute it hit the
table, there was a collective “yuk” from all the adults. Without a doubt, one of the most unappetizing
meals we’ve ever seen anywhere. We
understand that allergies can be difficult to manage, but this salad bore no
resemblance to what the manager had described as “grilled with some olive oil
and spices”. While he was standing
there, we asked what happened to the salad, and he said “well, the chef just
put the chicken and vegetables in a foil pouch and steamed it instead”. Words cannot do justice to how awful this
looked, and while my wife did take a bite of the chicken, she immediately told
the manager to take it away…it was inedible.

The manager apologized, and sent the waitress back with a
menu, and offered to bring my wife something else. My wife then ordered a hummus wrap with
steamed broccoli. While this was going on, my measly steak tips came back, with
nothing else…what happened to the broccoli?
Believe me, if the portion is going to be so small, serving it alone on
a large dinner plate makes it look even more paltry. Since everyone else was pretty much done
eating at this point, when the waitress brought my broccoli, I gave it to my
wife, so she could at least eat something.
The kitchen staff made the hummus wrap pretty quick and got it to our
table…unfortunately too quick, because while it had the vegetables, they didn’t
put any hummus in it! Seriously?! Can the kitchen staff do anything right? My wife sent that back too, and that was the
end of her dinner. Great experience,
eh? Go out to dinner with friends and
family, and watch everyone else eat.

Because it had taken so long, because the experience was so
lacking, and because we had to retrieve another teenager elsewhere, I left my
wife to resolve the bill, but we had quite a conversation when she got
home. After I left, I thought that the
steak tip order was perhaps the “half-way” size, because it was anything but
“huge”. I texted my wife, and asked her
to check with the waitress. The bill
showed “$13.99” for the tips, and the waitress told my wife that it was a full
order. Wow…Equally disturbing was that
there was a charge on the check for $3.99 for the onion rings that were a side
to the steak tips, so that stingy meal costs $17.98! You think the waitress would have mentioned
that you could not replace the mashed potatoes, but have to pay the full price
for the onion rings as a side? In that
case, shouldn’t I have gotten my two sides with the steak tips, since I was paying
full price for the rings? This makes no
sense. I didn’t want the mashed
potatoes, but would have gotten something else.
Instead of saying “fine” when I placed my order, at a minimum, she
should have told me that you can’t substitute in the rings unless you pay for
them, in which case perhaps I would have kept the broccoli but gotten some
other side. Maybe I would have also kept
the order of onion rings, but at a minimum, that’s information the consumer
deserves to know; nowhere was this mentioned on the menu. Instead, I can’t help feeling more than a
little ripped off by this meal given the small portion, a single side (broccoli
that I gave to my wife since she had nothing else to eat) and the high
price.

While the manager offered my wife a $15 gift card given the utter
failure for her meal, there’s really no need for me to continue this…my wife
and friends summed it up perfectly when they got home…”Half-way Café…off our
list”. With all the other dining options
available in the MetroWest area, I see no reason to patronize your restaurant
any longer.

If you feel it would be helpful to speak about this, I may
be reached at 508-XXX-XXXX.

Half-Way's response. I give him a lot of credit. He looked in to it, and gave a detailed response. While we're not planning on going back anytime soon, they get good marks for the thorough response...

"Eric, my name
is Matt XXXX and I am General Manager of the Halfway Cafe in Marlboro. I wanted
to apologize for the experience your family and friends had recently at our
restaurant. We work very hard to make each experience a good one, understanding
full well the breadth of options in MetroWest area. In order to keep you coming
back, the service and food must be consistently top notch. On Saturday night,
clearly neither were.

The number of
"breakdowns" in your visit are vast and are being addressed by myself
immediately.

Your server
had just come out of training and clearly was not prepared to handle your
needs. This explains her lack of warning regarding the pricing of the sides
(substituting onion rings for one side should be $1.99. I looked and she substituted
both sides for onion rings, resulting in the exorbitant charge) and why she
forgot to modify the steak tips as plain, resulting in your tips being doused
in cafe sauce. Ultimately, our training needs to be better.

The host
failed you on a number of levels with the wait. Our host shouldn't quote
specific times over the phone. For large parties, we should put your name on
the wait list. When you arrive, your wait would be dictated by your place on
the list (typically first), and the availability of tables coming up. We don't
usually "hold" tables because of the size of the restaurant and the
occasional party that calls ahead but never shows up. Additionally, your
concession to split up the party into two groups was apparently never communicated
to the manager, who could have certainly expedited your being sat had he known
that. Ultimately, our communication needs to be better.

The kitchen
failed you on a number of levels as well. The wings are portioned by number.
The wings we order are brought to us based upon their size. They should be
extremely large wings and a double order of them should never look skimpy. If
the wings that come in are not of the usual size, they should compensate
automatically with more wings or not serve them at all. The portioning of the
steak tips I have spot checked and they are weighed to 10 oz. I have no doubt
that the order was small on your plate, though I can only chalk this up to
human error on some level, as they are typically spot on. The salad debacle
seems two-fold. The manager should not have described it as grilled (it is
cooked on the grill but we cook the chicken and vegetables separately in foil
so that there is no chance for contamination) and the kitchen obviously didn't
execute our allergy protocol properly. No doubt that your food was not
cross-contaminated, but when done properly, the food is safe from allergens and
delicious. Additionally, they forgot the hummus on the wrap your wife ordered.
Ultimately, our execution needs to be better.

Finally, the
management, including myself, failed you. We should have caught some of these
mistakes and done a better job of rectifying the situation before you left. My
intention is not to denigrate my staff. I believe in my staff and managers. Any
one of these mistakes would probably not have constituted a
"deal-breaker" for your visit. But the culmination of all these
errors in one visit has removed us from your restaurant list. We are better
than this, as your previous experiences would hopefully dictate. Please know
that this is not typical of the Halfway. I am already using this not only as a
training tool for our staff, but as personal motivation to ensure that our
training, communication, and execution improves.

Whether you
decide to give us another chance is ultimately up to you, but we would love to
see you again and prove that the other night was an aberration. I would only
need an address to send you dinner on us.

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Welcome to the Critical Palate

Standing up to the commercial injustices being foisted upon us all, whether in retail stores, restaurants, movies or television.
I may publish to this blog daily, weekly, or when the mood strikes. I encourage you to share your stories and post responses. This blog is open, and hopefully we can all stand up together and shout: I am mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it any more!!!
I heard this somewhere, and thought it sounded good...
Welcome, and come back often.
Eric

Palateers

About Me

An attorney in the Metro-Boston area and an adjunct faculty member at a local college. Since the practice of law is nothing like you see on television, he has many other interests. As a member of the consuming public, he has taken on the responsibility of fighting retail, restaurant, televised and movie injustices for all.